AN: So sorry for the wait! I'll try to update sooner next time, I promise. Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews! And now, on with the chapter!

Blue. Green. Purple. Pink. Red. Orange. I never knew the sea had so many colours. It was a little awkward, at first. I wasn't entirely comfortable holding Carrow's hand, but I certainly wasn't going to let go. It's beautiful here, but it's big- huge. Everything's so vast, and I am rendered insignificant and powerless. I'm a little on edge. Carrow sees things I don't see- shoals of fish passing us by, a stingray gliding beneath us, a jellyfish brush the sand on the ocean floor.

"Come, Kerenza," he says, his eyes glittering in his face like two strange jewels in a sandy desert, "there is a large current coming- we should ride it!"

I follow his gaze, and see a glassy twist of water writhing towards us. It's fast and powerful. "Are you sure, Carrow?" I ask, "it looks a bit... dangerous!"

He grins wickedly. "That's the fun of it!" He grabs me, and with a flick of his tail, he sends us powering into the current. Suddenly, there is a lurch, and everything blurs. Nothing is solid anymore, and there's no time to think. My stomach plummets, and my legs turn to jelly. I blink, and it's over. We're in some completely new surroundings now- there's a reef beneath us. Carrow's in front of me, his grasp on my wrist firm, dark hair floating in the waves. His expression is smug, though eager too. "Well, Kerenza," he says, as though he might burst with pride, "did you enjoy it?"

I can't help but smile at his tone. "It was certainly different." I don't mention that I still can't feel my legs.

"Could you have mentioned this a little sooner?" I hiss. It was the dead of night when I entered Ingo, and now I'm out, the dawn is already seeping over the cliffs. "It's been six or seven hours, at least! Aunt Saph will kill me- as will Dad when he finds out about this." I round on Carrow. "How could you not tell me this?!"

"I didn't know." The corners of his mouth are tugging. He finds my rage funny, and this irks me beyond belief.

"How did you not know?" I explode, "Your world's time is completely screwed up, and you didn't mention it?"

He looks at me, green eyes innocent. "But surely it's your world's time that is... screwed up."

I roll my eyes, exasperated. "I'm going. Aunt Saph will be worried sick!"

"So," he says slowly, "when will we meet again?"

"Are you mad? I'm never doing that again!"

He pouts. "You blame me for the nature of my world. Anyway, we do not have to revisit Ingo next time," he glances at the landscape behind me, "perhaps you could show me some of your Norvys."

I'm so busy muttering under my breath, and watching him swim away, that it's ten minutes before I realise that I knew that "Norys" meant "Earth."

I don't know what I am anticipating when I get back to the cottage, but this isn't it. Aunt Saph is sitting at the table, holding a warm dressing gown for me, with a plate of hot buttered toast, and some tea, all laid out. She tells me to go and shower, and warm up, and she smiles broadly at me when I come back down. She doesn't talk, just watches me eat. I chew the toast like a cow chew's the cud- slowly, methodically and mechanically. She waits for me to finish, and then there's silence. She's watching me with a dreamy, strange sort of smile on her face, and I feel uncomfortable. I suddenly yearn for Dad's yelling, anything to break the silence.

"I'm sorry," I say.

"No, no! How was it?"

I gulp. "How was what?"

She laughs. "You don't have to hide it from me. Ingo's a wonderful place, and too big a secret to bear on your own. It always helps to share, I should know!"

I think of the night I saw her at the cove, and it's out before I can stop myself. "Your boyfriend's a merman."

The easy smile slides from her face, and her hands clench around her coffee mug. She lowers her head so that the hair falls in front of her face. "You saw Faro. When?"

"The night we arrived. I couldn't sleep. I walked down to the cove. I saw you, with... Faro."

She looks to the ceiling, and sighs. "Yes. Yes, you saw me with Faro, who I suppose you could call my... boyfriend. We meet at night so-"

"He won't be seen."

She smiles wearily at me. "So what about you?"

"Huh?"

"You can't reach Ingo alone- who helped you?"

I turn the cup in my hands nervously. "A boy- merboy, that is- his name's Carrow."

Aunt Saph looks up, surprised. "Carrow? Who would've thought it..."

I stare at her. "You know him?"

She laughs, nodding. "Carrow's uncle, and guardian, is Faro."

I can't help but grin. "That rhymes!"

Aunt Sapphire continues, ignoring me. "Meanwhile, you have to promise... do not tell your father."

I nod. Dad's always so paranoid about anything ocean-related. "What's his problem anyway?"

Aunt Sapphy looks darkly at the table. "Your father is no stranger to Ingo, or its inhabitants."

I stare at her. "Dad knows Ingo?"

"He grew up here, remember? He found Ingo before I did, actually."

I continue to stare.

"He never trusted it, wanted it as much as I did," her eyes have taken on a faraway look, and suddenly, it doesn't feel as though I'm the one she's talking to, "but he enjoyed it all the same."

"So why does he hate the sea so much?"

Her eyes focus on me again, and they're dark and penetrating. "When the sea wants something, it takes it. And your father was terrified that it wanted something of his."